From Studio DEEN comes Fate/Stay Night, a sublime piece of animation and story telling that draws on ancient mythology from around the world.
Every ten years or so, seven powerful Magus are called upon to take their place in the Holy Grail War. Each Magus must summon forth a servant, a powerful heroic spirit to help them in their quest to find and capture the mystical artifeact. Only one may possess the power of the Grail, for the victor comes power and a glory and a single wish that may be grant by the holy relic but to achieve his final goal, the Magus must destroy the other seven Masters and their Servants.
Emiya Shirou, is no ordinary highschool student, the sole survivor of a disaster that destroyed the city ten years ago, the cause of which is unknown, he possess some talents as a novice magus. The young student has only one dream in life, to protect others at any cost, even if that means forfeiting his own life. Unaware that the Holy Grail war has begun, he haplessly stumbles across a battle between servants, the despicable Lancer and the mysterious Archer. After an attack by Lancer, Shirou is resurrected by Rin, a young girl who attends the same high school. She reveals her abilities as a Magus and as Archer’s Master and soon the two find themselves in an unlikely alliance against the other five deadly Masters.
Shirou summons his own Servant, the powerful but guarded, Saber, a beautiful knight who wields an invisible sword. Together, alongside Archer and Rin, the four must battle to prevent the devastation of the city, protect the innocent souls around them and ensure that the Grail does not fall into the hands of any of the other Masters.
There are however some flaws to the series, at times the story can be a little difficult to follow, the subtitles are perfect and are very well translated but the actual plot of the series can be somewhat jumpy. You may find yourself hoping to learn more about specific characters or even abilities but unless they play a key role throughout you can forget about it. The series also seems to expect you to have some prior knowledge of the mythology it so delicately interweaves into it’s story and while the narrative does it’s best to draw you in you will find yourself asking who the hell is that guy and what the hell has he to do with the plot about halfway into the series (that’s not a good thing?!)
Overall however the series is enjoyable and we here at the @rcade found ourselves wishing there were more than 24 episodes to the series!
Bad points: Jumpy plotline
Poor character development
Good points: Cool fight scenes
Nice animation
Great music
The Verdict: 7/10
